Live review

Beck

iTunes Festival, Camden Roundhouse

It’s always a pleasure coming to the iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse; with a great atmosphere assured and tonight’s main act, Beck, a veritable music icon.

Jenny Lewis, slipped in as support, took to the stage in her rainbow themed suit, as pictured on her new album ‘The Voyager’. Playing acoustic, with her band all in white, she looked comfortable in mid tempo rootsy indie Americana, a natural follow on from her Rilo Kiley inception. Latest single ‘Just One Of The Guys’ - produced by Beck, was the clear set highlight. Clinically excellent, she was almost too slick for my taste but warmed the crowd for the main event.

With such a prolific back catalogue and recent collaborations prompting special guest rumours, the excitement was palpable as the familiar thirty second count began.

‘Devils Haircut’, my personal favourite, was the opener, Beck clearly setting out his stall. Sporting a black suit complete with black, Amish style hat and red shirt he leaped around the stage to the delight of the expectant crowd.

‘Loser’, ‘The New Pollution’ and the spine tingling ‘Lost Cause’ followed with a skilled harmonica break which went down a treat. Beck sure knows how to strike a pose and work the room with the band keeping a high line at the lip of stage.

After thrilling, frenetic renditions of ‘Girl’, ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘E-Pro’ Beck left the stage to his three guitarists who smashed into each other repeatedly, and finally collapsed on the stage. Beck returned with yellow crime scene tape to seal of the front of the stage warning “this is a crime scene, stand back”.

The performance resumed after his tongue in cheek stunt with another classic in ‘Sexx Laws’, the jovial ‘Deborah’ and finally ‘Where It’s At’ bringing proceedings to a close.

In an hour and a half there was not much more that Beck could have done, it was a gig bursting with hits and fizzing with life. There were no surprise guests making an appearance. Quite simply, Beck doesn’t need them. A man still at the peak of his powers. Sublime.